Educational Science

Autopsies from Space: Who Killed the Sea Lions?

This article was originally published on The Conversation. The publication contributed this article to Live Science's Expert Voices: Op-Ed & Insights. A decade ago, we set out to unravel deep ocean crime scenes we weren’t even sure existed. The crime? Endangered Steller sea lions were rapidly disappearing in parts of...

Sea Lions React To Sonar

It's not only whales that are affected by military sonar, but California sea lions respond to the underwater noise as well, according to a new study in the journal Marine Environmental Research. Experiments with captive sea lions show that the louder the military style sonar signals the marine mammals are...

It's not every day that scientists identify a new mammal — especially one that can grow to be more than 8 feet (2.4 meters) long. But researchers recently named a new species of cetacean: the Australian humpback dolphin, Sousa sahulensis. S. sahulensis hadn't been hiding in a mysterious part of...

How Do Dolphins Sleep?

For humans and other land mammals, sleep involves partial or total unconsciousness, the inactivation of all voluntary muscles (those that are consciously controlled) and the suspension of senses such as vision and smell. But the same thing isn't true for dolphins and other cetaceans, the group of marine mammals that...

No Tusks: Ancient Walrus Cousin Looked More Like a Sea Lion

About 10 million years ago, a distant cousin of the modern walrus snapped at fish as it swam near the shore of what is now modern Japan, a new study finds. The roughly 10-foot-long (3 meters) creature didn't have tusks as walruses do today, but instead sported moderate-sized upper canines,...

Dams Imperil Pakistan's Endangered River Dolphins

Editor's Note: This story was updated at 5:10 p.m. E.T. The Indus River dolphin's habitat is shrinking because of irrigation dams that divide up the river into sections, new research suggests. The findings support conservationists' long-held suspicion that dams along the world's major rivers have been catastrophic for the species...

No one knows why decapitated sea lions keep turning up in Vancouver Island

The decapitated bodies of at least five sea lions found on the shores of Vancouver Island, Canada, over the past few months hint that there may be a marine-mammal serial killer on the loose, or perhaps someone who is lopping off the heads of already dead sea lions, according to...

Terrifying Video: Why a Sea Lion Pulled a Little Girl into the Water

It was a terrifying moment caught on video. A sea lion bobs its head in the water while a girl sits gingerly on the dock above. The next instant, the sea lion launches out of the water and pulls the girl in, but the animal releases her a few seconds...

Dead Dolphins Wash Ashore Amid UK's Stormy Winter

Unusually stormy weather in Britain this winter has apparently taken a toll on dolphins and porpoises. Carcasses of the marine mammals have been washing up on beaches in West Sussex, Dorset and Cornwall, The Daily Express reports. According to the paper, the creatures' food sources, such as sand eels and...

Ukraine's Combat Dolphins Now Swim for Russia

Following the Russian takeover of Crimea this month, a lot of residents of Crimea are being asked to switch sides — but not all of those residents are human. Crimea — formerly a part of Ukraine — was formally annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin after Russian troops took control...